英语听力精选进阶版 7184（在线收听）

Background:土卫六是土星最大的卫星，它主要是由水、冰和山脉组成。科学家近日在旧金山召开的美国地球物理学联合会上宣称他们可能在土卫六上发现了冰火山。

Titan shroudedis a mysterious world. Because it's shrouded in a thick, oily haze, it's extremely hard to identify anything at the moon with confidence. But with temperatures that plunge to minus 180 Celsius at the surface, researchers had suspected it might have ice volcanoes.

And now the Cassini probe has spotted a 1,500m-high mountain with a deep pit in it, and what looks like a flow of material nearby.

Scientists can only speculate what sort of material a cryo-volcano might erupt, but the complex chemistry at Titan suggests it could be a slushy water-ice containing ammonia.

If there are a lot of carbon molecules present, the lava could even look like softened asphalt, candle wax or even polyethylene.

The team which discovered the mountain have dubbed it "The Rose".

Glossary 词汇表

shrouded 笼罩 

haze 烟雾 

to plunge 骤降 

probe 探测器 

to spot 发现 

to speculate 推测，猜测 

to erupt 喷出 

slushy 泥泞的 

molecule 分子 

to dub 把…称为

Questions and Answers

1. Why is it difficult to identify anything on Titan’s surface? 

Because it is shrouded in a thick, oily haze.

2. Why do scientists think that there could be an ice volcano there? 

Because temperatures on the surface plunge to minus 180 Celsius.

3. True or false? Scientists are sure the volcano spews ice. 

False. Scientists can only collect evidence and speculate what sort of material the Titan volcano might erupt.

4. True or false? The lava could look like candle wax. 

True. Due to the amount of carbon molecules present, it could even look like candle wax.